Fashion (March 2015)
Not Just A Girl
With her plate fuller than ever, Gwen Stefani is fashioning a new identity
A WAVE OF SILENCE FOLLOWS GWEN STEFANI AS SHE WALKS OUT OF HER DRESSING ROOM at L.A.’s Siren Studios to survey her surroundings. A dead ringer for Jean Harlow, whom Stefani played in Martin Scorsese’s 2004 film The Aviator, the California-bom pop singer/fashion designer is, fittingly, getting her photo taken steps away from such Tinseltown landmarks as the TCL Chinese Theatre. It's here, in the oldest area of old Hollywood, that stars of the garden Harlow-Hepburn-Hutton variety have been immortalized by cameras. Striding toward the photo shoot crew for FASHIONs March cover, Stefani embodies the same type of grace as those legendary names. When an assistant offers her a pair of slippers to change into, she declines and forges ahead toward the lens in six-inch Louboutins. “Guys, don’t worry. I got this,” she says with a smirk. “Remember? I’m a warrior.”
There’s only one person who dares to break the hypnotic hush on set: Her giggly eight-month-old son, Apollo. As he bounces up and down in an emerald onesie, the infant revs up the wheels of his baby walker and races around the scene. He gurgles loudly at all the bright colours hanging in the wardrobe, casting a wide-eyed glance at the racks of vibrant Dsquared and Mugler pieces before speeding toward Mommy’s shiny heels. Stefani’s coolness is broken in half when the boy catches up to her and yelps like a puppy. She starts laughing uncontrollably, runs her fingers through her son’s mini pompadour and says, “Mommy’s gotta work, cutie pie, but we’ll be done soon!”
When Mommy gets into position, she doesn’t change. Her poses are fluid and so full of ease, it’s almost as if the hectic flashes are as natural to her as the Orange County sun she was raised under. Stefani's hairstylist, Danilo (whom she’s worked with since the video for No Doubt’s song “Ex-Girlfriend,” released in 2000), mentions that the tyke is growing accustomed to backstage life, since Stefani spent the tail end of last year as a coach on the reality music series The Voice. After checking on her son, Stefani smooths the wrinkles in the Versace skirt she’s wearing and stops mid-pose to appreciate the moment. “I love this part of the job,” she says in a tone that’s part-exhilarated, part-exhausted. “Putting on clothes and taking photos is so rad. I remember when I could do this all day,” says the 45-year-old before the last photo is snapped. “But now I need to spend time with my boys. They have me on a tight schedule.”
The boys she’s referring to aren’t the members of No Doubt, the Grammy-winning band she made history with as frontwoman in the ’90s and early 2000s. Though 15 years ago that might have been the case and her concerns likely included packing enough graphic crop tops, mesh tanks and leopard print jeans for touring and performing ska-tinged hits such as “Just A Girl,” “Hey Baby” and “Hella Good.” Now, her trio of sons—eight-year old Kingston James McGregor, six-year-old Zuma Nesta Rock and Apollo Bowie Flynn (whom Stefani breastfed before the interview)—trumps any obligations. It isn’t that she stopped working altogether; Stefani is focused on four major fashion and fragrance projects, including L.A.M.B., her Harajuku Lovers perfume line, a partnership with Design With Purpose, and a handbag and shoe collection named GX by Gwen Stefani. Her husband, Bush’s lead singer, Gavin Rossdale, and her family have just shifted her priorities.
“I’m so rock and roll,” she laughs. “In the last 10 days I did Disneyland and [theme park] Knott’s Berry Farm.” Like so many stars in her position who have kids and a time-consuming career, Stefani says plates are always spinning in the air. This is especially true right now, as she is relaunching her solo career with an upcoming, yet to-be- titled album.
“The album was not supposed to happen,” she says dramatically. “Out of nowhere, God gave me a baby. It was a happy shock. I went from being in the studio non-stop to getting really sick during pregnancy and being told to lay low,” she says. Stefani had to stay home, but she couldn’t sit still. “While I was puking every day, I was working on a cartoon from home. Five weeks after I had the baby, Pharrell [Williams] called me to do Coachella. It was the first time I left the house!”
But Stefani is quick to discredit anyone who applies the phrase I Don't Know How She Does It to her life. “There isn’t any truth to the work-life balance thing,” she says. “I don’t want people to think that I could do these things without having all the help I have. I have a full-time assistant. I have nannies. I have tutors. I have housekeepers and managers and an army of people who help me with L.A.M.B.,” she says. “Even then” she points out, “someone still suffers every day. Like today, poor Apollo got bummed out when I walked by him. I do feel guilty—a lot.”
As for her sons Kingston and Zuma, she says they are supportive of her musical ambitions. “They want me on the charts. They know that it’s important that I work and do well. When I paired up with Pharrell, they said, ‘Mom, you gotta make a good song.’” Pharrell (a long-time collaborator who co-wrote Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”), isn’t the only person Stefani worked with to re-stake her claim as a solo artist. Although the hitmaker produced Stefani’s “Spark The Fire,” she asked a list of talents to lend a hand. Sia, whom Stefani refers to as genius, contributed a son called “Start A War” (which is about “not picking a fight in a relationship,” Stefani explains). Other key players are Calvin Harris, Charli XCX, Ryan Tedder and Benny Blanco (the latter pair co-wrote “Baby Don’t Lie”).
When initially conceptualizing the album, Stefani decided to put together a mood board instead of dreaming up new sounds. “I wanted to start with the visuals,” she says. This backward approach thrilled her. “I had never done that before. Whenever I design a collection, I start that way, so I thought, ‘Why not do that for an album?”’ She pulled swatches of pink, yellow, black and white. “A lot of houndstooth and polka dots...classic mixed with modern.” Through the whole process, Stefani had few demands or expectations. She was intent, however, on getting an answer to one thing: “What’s the evolution?” she says.
These days she’s contemplating whether being an age-appropriate pop artist makes sense. When asked about Madonna’s recent breast-bearing shoot with Interview magazine, Stefani seems uncomfortable with her fellow icon’s motivations. “We have this sexual side to us that is alluring and powerful. It’s a gift. When you discover it when you are around 14, it feels amazing,” she says. “But you learn it’s fleeting. Sexuality is something I’ve never felt comfortable with. I won’t be doing any topless photo shoots anytime soon. It’s not my thing. I don’t judge people for it, but I didn’t even wear high heels until I was 30. It’s important to evolve outside of your sexuality to entertain people. It was never a card that I played or will play—ever.”
Stefani’s decision to be part of The Voice was partially due to her own interest in the changes happening in the music industry. “Now everyone has a stage with a YouTube page,” she says. The shift in public taste was something that was duly noted. “During my whole first solo record, I lost everything to Kelly Clarkson at the MTV awards and I was like, OK,” she says, lifting her hands up in defeat. “There was a new platform coming. It seems unheard of coming from the ’90s when everything was so pure and homegrown, but now it’s a different world.”
“I feel like I’ve gone down so many roads and done everything many times over,” she says. “I’ve toured the world - a lot. I’ve made songs with a lot of people. I’ve done a lot of hairdos, outfits and styles. You can’t help but wonder, ‘How do I make something new?”’
When it comes to looking back, Stefani is not the type to make light of the clothes or visuals she chose in the past. Instead, she finds her video and red carpet outfits to be extremely revelatory.
“Everything seems to have a reason for looking a certain way,” she says. “If you [hand] me an old photo of myself, I can tell you why I’m wearing what I’m wearing. Somebody just showed me a picture of me at an MTV awards, where I was wearing this blue fur bathing suit top,” she says, with a lilt of pride in her voice. “Right away, I was like, ‘Yup, I know why I wore that.’ I had just gotten off a two-and-a-half year tour with No Doubt and felt like I needed to break free a bit. How can anyone regret wearing something? I never do. It reflects who you are at that moment.”